How Much Does the White House Cost?

Like it or not, the election season is here. Along with heated debates and campaign promises, the politically savvy will start tossing around a tried and true adage: The White House is for sale.

This got us thinking: What would the Executive Mansion in the heart of Washington D.C. fetch?

To answer this question we reached out to The Koitz Group, a luxury real estate firm that has operated in the nation’s capital and surrounding areas for more than a decade.

A Brief History of the White House

Like our country, the White House has a long and complicated history.

In 1790 President George Washington signed into law an act that declared the federal government would sit on 10-square miles of land along the Potomac River. A competition was held to find a builder for the White House, and Irish-born architect James Hoban was chosen.

Construction began in 1792 and finished in 1800. Since then each president, excluding Washington, has lived in the White House. Twice the building has caught fire, once when the British burned it during the War of 1812 and again in 1929.

But when it comes to our hypothetical question, we excluded the the White House’s historic value and stuck with cold hard facts.

At 55,000 square feet, the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has

132 rooms

35 baths

6 levels.

What Would the White House Sell For?

Jason Koitz, the certified fiscal officer and real estate strategist for The Koitz Group, tossed Movoto’s request around the office and came back with two numbers, a listing price and a more realistic sales price.

“I think just based on the size and location; the list price would be in the low $100 million range. It would probably be $110 or $115 (million). This would be an extreme luxury home.”

~ Jason Koitz, The Koitz Group

Realistically, if such a hypothetical can be called that, Koitz said the White House would sell for somewhere between $75 and $80 million, or between $1,364 and $1,455 per square foot.

A Price Tag on the Priceless

Koitz came up with this number in part by researching the prices of luxury homes in the Washington, D.C. area.

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9 Comments

OT, but if David Cross is currently a “Writer for Muvoto”, including writer of this piece… Shouldn’t he still be considered a “journalist”, instead of “former journalist”? Al Gore’s invention has fundamentally transformed the nature of Journalism. Today there are millions of “Citizen Journalists” throughout the world, many of whom have infinitely more credibility than any of the legacy media outlets, which have mostly become synchronized cogs in a Liberal propaganda machine!!!

I like to think of that price as more of the “Novelty” price; as if the White House wasn’t a national monument and more just like a really fancy mansion. The White House is probably more like a piece of artwork where the price would be determined by the highest bidder.